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He was told of von Moll's mysterious activities, of Smith's suspicious conduct, of the Emperor's fixed determination to get the island back for Konrad Karl. He professed to regard the whole business as a bore. "Buried treasure, pirate hoards and other mysteries," he said, "have no kind of attraction for me. I feel sort of discouraged when they bubble up round me.
I undertook the task in gratitude, and it hath been a work of love all through, well paid for by the happiness that I have found here." He stood musing a little while, as if he were debating with himself whether he should seek to overcome Moll's resentment or not. Then, raising his head quickly, he says: "'Tis best so, maybe.
And I was very well pleased to find him in this humour, promising him that we would make amends for his abstinence on this occasion by cracking many a bottle to Moll's joy when we could come together again secretly at my house. In the afternoon Mr. Pearson's clerk brought the deed of agreement for the settlement of the estate upon Moll and Mr.
Old Earl Budde, Moll's father, was as crusty an old curmudgeon as one could find in a county. Thus it was that, knowing no hand of motherly authority, the child perforce ran wild throughout her dazzling adolescence. The trees were her playmates, the twittering of the birds her music all the wild things of the forest loved her, specially dogs and children.
She was conscious, as she hid the White Moll's clothes away, that she was thankful she had regained in safety even the questionable sanctuary of this wretched place; but, strangely, thoughts of her own peril seemed somehow to be temporarily relegated to the background. She flung herself down on the bed it was not Gypsy Nan's habit to undress and blew out the light. But she could not sleep.
Gorman closed the door behind her and then drew his chair close to that on which von Moll was sitting. Smith brought in coffee and liqueurs. Gorman took the brandy bottle off the tray and set it on the table at von Moll's elbow. Smith made an effort to recover the bottle and carry it away. He seemed to think that von Moll had had enough to drink.
But, as luck would have it, he got no farther than the boarding by the Black Moll's crew, when he fell to squabbling with Cockle as to who had been the first man over the side; and while they were settling this difference I grasped the opportunity to escape.
In von Moll's opinion such conduct could not, without grave impropriety, be described as "rather fun." He was not at all sure that the German navy would not suffer in prestige among the islanders. "The man," he said stiffly, "had three teeth broken." "Oh," said the Queen, "I'm so sorry, and I'm afraid there's no dentist on the island. Still it was his own fault, wasn't it?"
I will not attempt to tell further of this meeting and our passionate, fond embraces, for 'twas past all description; only in the midst of our joy I perceived that Mohand ou Mohand had entered the room and stood there, a silent spectator of Moll's tender yielding to her husband's caresses, his nostrils pinched, and his jaundiced face overcast with a wicked look of mortification and envy.
But I observed, as an indication of the steward's thrifty, unpoetic mind, that the garden beds were planted with onions and such marketable produce, in place of flowers, and that instead of deer grazing upon the green slopes of the park there was only such profitable cattle as sheep, cows, etc. And with that, all unthinkingly, he lays his arm about Moll's waist.
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